VISRETAIN

[Oscar]

I am dealing with alot of xref'es and my manager told me we always have VISRETAIN set to 1. He explained t to me but I didnt understand why we use it, can someone explain it to me like Im 5? 

[rkmcswain]

Say you have "child.dwg", and it has a bunch of layers in it, and they are all RED.

Now say you have "parent.dwg" and you xref in "child.dwg". When you first create the reference, all of the layers in "child.dwg" (as viewed as a reference in "parent.dwg") will be red.

Now say that in "parent.dwg", you change the color of all of the reference layers in "child.dwg" to green.

You save "parent.dwg", close it, then reopen it.

 

If VISRETAIN is set to 1 in "parent.dwg", when you reopen it, all of the "child.dwg" layers will still be green.

If VISRETAIN is set to 0 in "parent.dwg", when you reopen it, all of the "child.dwg" layers will revert to red

 

I just used color as an example, but the same thing applies to other layer properties.

[ammobake]

SO, basically, VISRETAIN 1 just means autocad won't let anyone screw with nested layer colors, linetypes, etc?

 

Kind of handy as long as everyone is using the linetypes and layer colors they're supposed to but not always the case.  In our company there's certain drawings the drafters aren't allowed to screw with because it's the responsibility of the designers to deal with those.  So we aren't allowed to mess with the (XREF) parent drawings but we are allowed to mess with nested layer colors to get the CTB to plot as intended.

 

Honestly, this company is the first one I've seen where the drafters don't design everything for the engineer on the fly due to time constraints.  So I'm pretty spoiled right now.

LOL

 

-ChriS

[Oscar]

On 6/3/2019 at 10:34 AM, rkmcswain said:

Say you have "child.dwg", and it has a bunch of layers in it, and they are all RED.

Now say you have "parent.dwg" and you xref in "child.dwg". When you first create the reference, all of the layers in "child.dwg" (as viewed as a reference in "parent.dwg") will be red.

Now say that in "parent.dwg", you change the color of all of the reference layers in "child.dwg" to green.

You save "parent.dwg", close it, then reopen it.

 

If VISRETAIN is set to 1 in "parent.dwg", when you reopen it, all of the "child.dwg" layers will still be green.

If VISRETAIN is set to 0 in "parent.dwg", when you reopen it, all of the "child.dwg" layers will revert to red

 

I just used color as an example, but the same thing applies to other layer properties.

 

thank you! perfect explanation!